In the known art, there have been two ways of making a garment web into point of sale items. One is to put refastenable tabs, such as adhesive tape or hook and loop combinations onto the garment body, in the manner of an infant diaper, for later use to secure the back panel of the diaper to the front panel. A second is to bond the side edges of the front and back side regions together to make a closed garment, in the manner of a training pant which is slid on and off the wearer like a regular adult garment. To remove such a garment if it becomes soiled, it is necessary to break the side regions in order to remove the garment like a diaper, as convenience and hygiene would dictate.
It is therefore desired to provide a garment, such as a training pant, which may be slid-on in the fashion of an adult underwear while being easily removeable in the manner of a diaper and which can be made with relatively uncomplicated machinery in a space-efficient manner.
The present invention can provide a readily and inexpensively producible refastenable garment. The garment is desirably manufactured with its longitudinal axis in the machine direction. A generally rectangular web of garment chassis materials extending in the machine direction can be overlaid with side panel webs opposing each other in the machine direction. The side panel webs are attached at opposite upstream and downstream sides of the chassis web and have cooperative fasteners, such as hook and loop fasteners, opposing each other in the machine direction. The side panels do not extend beyond the chassis web, making the manufacturing process very compact. The manufactured garment is also compact and needs only one fold to place it in condition for packaging. The fold places the cooperative fasteners in a fastening relationship. Each fastener element can be through-cut or provided with a line of weakness at its longitudinal axis such that the side panel webs will separate upon opening the garment for use. The side panel webs can be shaped on selected edges to provide an efficacious leg hole fit. The side panel webs can also be extendible or elastic to provide an efficacious garment fit for the manufactured garment.